The volume contains contributions from leading scholars in the field of international law, including Jan Wouters, Nigel D. White, Jan Klabbers, Mary Footer and Nico Krisch, who consider the idea of institutional autonomy in international law, and autonomy within international institutional law from a broad perspective.

The book engages with the idea of international organisations as autonomous entities, both in terms of control and influence over their membership and as independent actors in the international system as a whole. It considers the difficulties of theorising autonomy in a decentralised legal system, where autonomy appears as both desirable and dangerous at the same time. Related to this, the chapters question how changing perceptions of international law affect ideas of autonomy in particular institutional settings, and how, in turn, particular institutional structures or experiences may affect our perceptions of, or ambitions for change within the international system as a whole.

6. The Idea of Autonomy: Accountability, Self-Determinism and what Normative Claims about Institutional Autonomy in Global Governance Should Mean, Garrett W. Brown

7. Autonomy, Constitutionalism, and Virtue in International Institutional Law, Jan Klabbers Part Two: Themes of Autonomy in Public International Law and International Institutional Law. (a) Themes of Institutional Autonomy in International Law

8. The Emergence of International Agencies in the Global Administrative Space: Autonomous Actors or State Servants?, Ramses A. Wessel & Edoardo Chiti

9. International Adjudication and Autonomy, John Merrills

10. Sanctions and Countermeasures by International Organizations: Diverging Lessons for the Idea of Autonomy, Frederic Dopagne. (b) Themes of Autonomy in International Institutional Law

11. The Relationship between International Legal Personality and Institutional Autonomy, Tarcisio Gazzini

12. Powers of Organizations and the Many Faces of Autonomy, Viljam Engstrom

15. Immunity as a Guarantee for Institutional Autonomy: A Functional Perspective on the Necessity of UN Immunity in Post-conflict Administrations, Eric De Brabandere Part Three: Autonomy within Particular Institutional Contexts